TOP ULSTER PAY-AND-PLAY COURSE
IS UP FOR SALE - TO PAY VAT BILL

FROM THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH
The famously popular resort-style complex built by a marchioness for Ulster's new breed of pay-and-play golfers is up for sale.
Blackwood, near Bangor, the brainchild of Lady Dufferin, has been forced to look for a buyer after being hit by a crippling bill for VAT of over £500,000.
The privately-owned club has been affiliated to the Irish Golfing Union nearly 14 years, and was on the same tax-free playing field as the majority of clubs in the Province. Or so members thought. Then the bubble burst.
"The VAT bill spans seven years, and has come as a bolt from the blue," says Richard Gibson, Blackwood's general manager.
"Naturally, the Blackwood company doesn't have that kind of money. It rented both courses here as a non-profit-making facility, and have always struggled to keep their heads above water.
"Hopefully, it will now become a members' club, and be exempt from VAT. This way we can save a great sporting facility from the guillotine, and everybody will have a job."
Blackwood is every golfer's dream. Built by Lady Dufferin at a cost of over £3m, there can't be many pay-and-play amenities that offer so much in such idyllic surroundings.
It has a championship course of 6,300 yards; a full-sized par-3 course that ranks with Ireland's best; 25-bay floodlit driving range; plus Scandinavian-style clubhouse and a four-star restaurant.
The entire complex covers nearly 300 acres, so, according to the club, nothing ever looks cramped or in the wrong place.
Not only does Blackwood's membership top 700, ladies and juveniles included, both courses are so popular with society and visiting golfers that close to 900 rounds a week are played there in summer. The club's annual sub is £700.
David Eager was head greenkeeper when Raymond Burns won the Ulster professional title in 1995, and despite some heavy traffic at times, the championship course is always in pristine condition.
The club's teaching professional is top girl Debbie Hanna.